Wednesday, January 18, 2017

President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted his administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures.

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to kill herself last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the men’s military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.

There has been quite a lot of pressure for President Obama to do this and clearly he wants to make some things right before he hands power over to the giant tangerine toddler.

Manning has been punished far more extensively than many that came before him, and quite a lot of what he leaked to the public helped to open the eyes of the American people to the atrocities being carried out in their name in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He has suffered enough and it is time to end that suffering.

Besides anything that gets Paul Ryan this upset can hardly be called a bad thing:

Speaker Paul D. Ryan called it “outrageous.” “President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes,” he said in a statement.

Interesting, so I guess when the Russians hack our election to help hand power to their puppet that does NOT compromise our national security.

So now we wait to see if a certain Julian Assange is a man of his word.

I read Assange's "offer" differently. Putin kills people who he thinks will turn on him. Assange knows too much. Assange is unpredictable. He has turned on his own beliefs to help the GOP win this election. I think this is his way of asking for protection without looking like a coward. Trump for sure would turn him over to Putin. He would never protect him.

Way O/T but definately worth reading. Here is a 90 year old woman's version of the Mickey Rourke rant.https://margaretandhelen.com/2017/01/17/trump-has-skin-thinner-than-his-wife-and-an-ego-bigger-than-my-ass/

OT? "The best way I can sum up the feeling ... is that we saw the earthquake up in the ocean and we know the tsunami is coming," O'Neill said of her conversations with activists and the leaders of organizations that partner with NOW.""Would this community of women have formed had Hillary Clinton won the election? The activists and organizers interviewed for this article said probably not.

"I would have just celebrated and then gone on with my life," said Keith, 41. "It definitely lit a fire in me.""People organize when they're ready, when they have something that galvanizes them," FEAR will do THAT.......

I guess the millions of us who have been diagnosed with a mental illness don't have much of a future, according to you. Thanks for lettin me know I have nothing to look forward to.

So, is Chelsea mentally ill because she wishes to be a SHE after being born with male bits, which was not her choice? Or do you base your 'diagnosis' on the fact that being in 7 years of solitary confinement misery made her want to die, so she attempted suicide twice?

@10:03 Plus being>Left naked with the lights on most of the time and "fact that being in 7 years of solitary confinement misery" diagnoses with a mental illness in Linda's "environment dependent " World...

Well see how it goes. I understand that she has endured a horrible environment and, no, I was not thinking only of her struggles with her sexual identity or her desire to kill herself in response to her environment as the heart of her mental health issues. It's much deeper. She may well prosper when she gets out and receives proper treatment. I acknowledge that many people do. Unfortunately I have been up close and personal to many who don't. I laud this commutation as a necessary step and I'm glad it has happened. And I hope she thrives from this point forward. i just don't expect it. That's my opinion and my opinion matters very little. But I'm entitled to it. .

Anonymous 12:34, I'm a liberal. I have no issue with transgender or transsexual people or anyone who is trying to figure themselves out on any issue. I don't agree that liberals think these people are national heroes. I do think we respect their feelings and their choices. I also don't care if I get dog piled on or told to fuck off. It happens to me in real life, too, but rolls right off. I'm too old at this point to care what other people believe about me or my opinions. It just so happens that I have worked in a field that advocates for physically and mentally disabled people for almost 39 years now. I have a lot of "insight" and I'm a realist. I guess I was just trying to say that while we may be glad Chelsea Manning's sentence was commuted, there is still a long row for her to hoe.

I am actually worried for Chelsea Manning. She will have to stay in the Brig for the next 120 days, and WHO KNOWS(!) what can or will happen to her in there between now and then. It would not surprise me, if she somehow would 'try to commit' or commit suicide and 'succeed'!

I agree, Chelsea did us a favor and uncovered Bush atrocities. As far as I can tell no one was physically harmed by those released documents. But the powers that were, WERE highly embarrassed. And things changed for the better.

Though snowdon relesed things we needed to know, he also took our national security to the enemy and showed them how to shred it.

Guess who's been advising Donald Trump on his picks for the people who will control foreign policy in a Trump administration?

Well, here's a hint: who's the most murderous, toxic, partisan psychopath you can think of? One who gained so much infamy for his services to the Bush administration that he had to flee the country to avoid the law?

If you guessed Erik Prince, notorious mercenary and founder of Blackwater, you win the dubious prize:

That's funny, I'd never seen that map. Last night we were discussing this very thing and both of us concluded that Putin would not bomb AK because of and our vast natural resources and proximity to Russia allowing for uncomplicated shipping options.

We're both basically vegetarians so I guess we'll be growing and storing a lot more if the lower 48 is sending up fresh winter produce! I guess since Hawaii survives we might establish more winter produce trade with them?

Chelsea Manning enlisted in good faith, stumbled upon something that wasn't right and released it. I am not thrilled that it was released to WikiLeaks but what is done is done. What she did do was face the consequences of her actions. She did not go seeking aid from communist countries that are known to consider America the enemy.

Snowden - not getting a pardon it seems - treated this whole thing like a spy movie. He had already convinced himself there were secrets, actively sought employment with contractors and companies that would give him access to those secrets....and then ran off to hide in Hong Kong and then Moscow.

I don't really believe in coincidences, as BBC Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes said, the universe is rarely so lazy. I find the timing of his flight to Moscow and the beginning of the hacks to be highly suspicious.

Except there's no coincidence or timeing to have to try to believe in. When Snowden left Hong Kong, his final destination wasn't Moscow. He was on his way to Ecuador where he'd asked for asylum via the international flights transfer zone of Sheremetyevo Airport at Moscow. Remember his lawyers sneaked him into the airport onto the flight because his passport had been revoked so when he got to Moscow, he couldn't board his Ecuador flight? Remember he lived in the transit zone for 40 days while his attorney negotiated asylum? Remember how the House Perm. Select Committee on Intelligence and the CIA admitted She didn't take any of "cache" into Russia? Refresh your memory of not so distant events about which there's no question by the US.

As for "seeking aid from communist countries" - it's appalling that people don't know Russia has been a representative democracy since 1991. Where have you been? Under a rock?

"Ruled by a dictator"That's ignorant nonsense. While the guy is a forceful leader with high authoritarian characteristics, he's clearly not a dictator. First, he doesn't have absolute and complete authority as president. Second, he's more an indication that a population that lived under soviet rule for 70 years and under autocratic rule for hundreds of years before that is still adjusting to being responsible for governing themselves. As a democratic opposition develops there, we'll see them stop recycling through the same leaders.

I have zero interest in these worldwide infantile games of intrigue and I'm pretty certain that it's just part of the universal human, or should I say human male's desire to always be at war with someone.

Such secrets act as nothing more than currency in the national power games that keep our world perpetually at war and until the men that rule our nations grow the fuck up the world will always be a shitty place.

Nothing should be so secret that it compromises a person's freedom, no bit of information is worth that, and it's just a stupid game that helps to stroke the egos of the power players that are ruining this world.

"According to the report, one in three women in Alaska have been stalked in their lifetime"“That’s more than 80,800 adult Alaskan women,” André Rosay, Ph.D., of the UAA Justice Center, the survey’s principle researcher, noted "“In 2015 alone, one in 17 adult women in Alaska (more than 15,300 women) were stalked.”The overall trend points downwards, with intimate partner violence decreasing 32 percent from 2010, as well as a 33 percent drop in sexual violence. But the report places emphasis on the fact that “the number of victims remains unacceptably high,” and concludes that the state needs to “strengthen our efforts for all women to be safe in Alaska.” NOW?

Allred and Zervos would be attending the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday to protest Trump’s Friday inauguration and that “other accusers” would “be there marching with us.”"Ms. Zervos was ambushed by Mr. Trump on more than one occasion. Mr. Trump suddenly, and without her consent, kissed her on her mouth repeatedly; he touched her breast; and he pressed his genitals up against her. Ms. Zervos never consented to any of this disgusting touching. Instead, she repeatedly expressed that he should stop his inappropriate sexual behavior, including by shoving him away from her forcefully, and telling him to “get real.” Mr. Trump did not care, he kept touching her anyway."“We would certainly seek any and all information and documents, recordings, etc., which may be relevant to the litigation of our lawsuit,” she said. “We’ll see what NBC decides [to do] if and when they are served a subpoena.”

Alright, let's use our noodles for just a sec even though we're all emotional with the hate on Julian Assange: While the Justice Dept is investigating Assange and Wikeleaks, Assange hasn't been charged with a crime in the US. There's no basis for the US to ask for his extradition or to arrest him. So let's unwrap our undies from their bunch about Assange "weaseling out" of something that can't even happen yet.

And judging from what Obama said in his press conference about Wikileaks and Assange in regards to commuting Manning's sentence, it doesn't sound like anybody's champing at the bit to indict and arrest/ extradite Assange:"So with respect to Wikileaks, I don't see a contradiction.First of all I haven't commented on Wikileaks generally. The conclusions of the intelligence community with respect to Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether Wikileaks was witting or not in being the conduit through which we heard about the DNC emails that were leaked. I don't pay a lot of attention to Assange's tweets, so that wasn't a consideration in this instance. And I'd refer you to the Justice Department for any criminal investigations, indictments, extradition issues that may come up with him."

assange is a coward and a thief. and he meddled in our election, which i find unforgivable. reclaimed it was because hillary clinton wanted him extradited - no kidding!!

first i think he should be extradited to sweden to face the rape accusations that are awaiting him there. if he is innocent, then let their cases fall apart, and let him then be extradited to the US for conspiring with a foreign power to meddle in our election. it might work for his huge ego - it would be a first. but his "principles" and courage don't match, obviously, because if you are going to commit the crime, even in the name of truth and justice, then you ought to be willing to do the time.

i believe in mercy more than i do justice, though justice must be carried out in order to decide to later show mercy, if that makes sense. manning obviously must not be having an easy time as a transgendered person in prison. i believe that she has suffered enough, and that he real person behind all of the leaks (no, not donny, not those kind of leaks) is assange, accompanied by his huge ego. but as i said, he's willing to commit crimes in the name of truth and justice, but truth and justice, yeah, not so important when it comes to serving time for the crimes he has committed. wikileaks might seem honourable in their, but it has a scared and possibly rapey little narcissist sits head. i don't think it can ever claim to take a principled stand again.

"let him then be extradited to the US for conspiring with a foreign power to meddle in our election...serving time for the crimes he has committed"Can you tell us what US law you think Assange has broken? Because apparently the Justice Dept can't seem to find what to charge him with. Of course until Assange is indicted for breaking some US law, the US can't ask for his extradition from anywhere. If anything, the "offer" was a self-serving fishing expedition by Assange and his lawyers to see if they could learn if there's a sealed indictment against him.

While a lot of people's panties are soaking wet thinking about Assange locked up in the US, you'll be frustrated to learn the US probably won't charge him with anything. Assange/ Wikileaks is a publisher. Like the NY Times and WaPo that published Snowden's leaks and Ellsberg's leaks, publishers are protected by the 1st amendment. Like Obama told us yesterday, they don't think Assange/Wikileaks was complicit in the hacks. No indictment, no extradition.

About Me

This blog is dedicated to finding the truth, exposing the lies, and holding our politicians and leaders accountable when they fall far short of the promises that they have made to both my fellow Alaskans and the American people.